Born in 1936, Liao Shiou-ping (廖修平) is a distinguished Taiwanese painter and printmaker who went abroad to study and live in Japan, France and the US in the mid 20th century. He learned the art of intaglio, a form of printing, in the famous Parisian printmaking studio Atelier 17 and later settled down in the US where he established his own studio. He eventually moved back to Taiwan. Simple Noble: The Artist Careers of Liao Shiou-ping (樸素高貴:廖修平的藝術歷程) is a retrospective spanning the 1960s until the present. While adopting Western influences in technique and culture, Liao also drew inspiration from his own cultural roots and childhood memories. “Modest and focused, the artist transforms plain and simple symbols into [an] aesthetic [that is] profound and noble,” writes the gallery.
■ Liang Gallery (尊彩藝術中心), 366, Ruiguang Rd, Taipei City (台北市瑞光路366號), tel: (02) 2797-1100. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 6pm
■ Until Nov. 24
Photo Courtesy of National Palace Museum
In collaboration with Casino Luxembourg — Forum for Contemporary Art, TheCube Project Space (立方計劃空間) presents The Ouroboros (銜尾蛇), an joint exhibition that is happening simultaneously in Taipei and Luxembourg. The show is part of a year-long Taiwan-Luxembourg exchange program that began last year. The ourobors, an ancient symbol that appears in many different religions and myths, depicts a serpent swallowing its own tail. The image traditionally refers to ideas of infinity, repetition and cycles of birth and death. Psychologist Carl Jung once proposed the ouroboros as related to the archetype of the human psyche. The show identifies with the ouroboros as a central theme that connects different responses to the general question of human survival. Eleven video works by eight artists are on view, engaging with the relationship between humanity, technology and nature.
■ TheCube Project Space (立方計劃空間), 2F, Ally 1, Ln 136, Roosevelt Rd, Taipei City (台北市羅斯福路四段136巷1弄13號2樓). tel: (02) 2368-9418. Open Wednesdays to Sundays from 2pm to 8pm
■ Until Oct. 20
Photo Courtesy of TheCube Project Space
ANiMAL—Art, Science, Nature, Society (動物藝想) is an exhibition of new media art curated by the City University of Hong Kong. The show explores the animal world through various fields, including art, science and the social sciences. Some of the featured works are inspired by masterpieces in the collection of the National Palace Museum, such as Morphosis of Castiglione’s Hundred Horses, a multimedia interpretation of Giuseppe Castiglione’s 18th century silk hand scroll, One Hundred Horses. In the new work, a digital animation of changing fur textures based on Castiglione’s paintings are projected onto a life-size horse sculpture. In addition to referencing historical works of art, the university presents artistic endeavours that integrate modern medicine technologies. CT Scans of a Cat and a Dog are computer-processed images that show cross sections of animals’ bodies based on data from X-ray measurements.
■ Songshan Feng-tian Temple (松山奉天宮), 12, Ln 221, Fude St, Taipei City (台北市福德街221巷12號), tel: (02) 2727-9765. Open Tuesdays to Sundays 9:30am to 5pm
■ Until Oct. 27
Photo Courtesy of National Palace Museum
Fine Works Donated to the National Palace Museum: A Selection of Modern Paintings and Calligraphy (受贈品展—現代書畫選萃) is the latest iteration of the National Palace Museum’s ongoing exhibitions of privately donated works. The show features seven calligraphers and painters born in the early 20th century who made remarkable contributions to the modern art of Taiwan. Huang Chun-pi (黃君璧) was an influential ink painter and educator well versed in a wide range of painting techniques. His misty landscape, Water from the Deep Green Cliff (自作蒼崖飛瀑), is a dynamic monochromatic composition with nuanced brushwork that is unrestrained yet subtly powerful.
■ National Palace Museum (國立故宮博物院), 221 Zhishan Rd Sec 2, Taipei City (台北市至善路二段221號), tel: (02) 2881-2021. Open daily from 8:30am to 6:30pm; closes at 9pm on Fridays and Saturdays
■ Until Sept. 25
Photo Courtesy of TheCube Project Space
h0le (洞) is a five day program of film screenings, artist talks and performances that respond to issues surrounding locality, such as methods of determining a place and ways to engage with it. Independent curators Esther Lu (呂岱如) and Korean Gahee Park have assembled 12 artists to “penetrate, project, reflect, extend [and] shift what connects and crosses geographies, generations and more,” reads the curatorial press release. Presenters include Cho Ik-jung, a Korean artist who works in diverse media who looks at violence and social relationships; Choi Yun, a Korean video, installation and performance artist who speculates on the collective beliefs implied in images found in public spaces and media; and Lo Shih-tung (羅仕東), a multimedia artist and leading member of Open Contemporary Art Center (打開-當代藝術工作站).
■ Taipei Contemporary Art Center (台北當代藝術中心), 11, Ln 49, Baoan St, Taipei City (台北市保安街49巷11號), tel: (02) 2550-1231. Open Wednesdays to Saturdays 2pm to 6:30pm
■ Until Sept. 1
Photo Courtesy of National Palace Museum
Last week Joseph Nye, the well-known China scholar, wrote on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s website about how war over Taiwan might be averted. He noted that years ago he was on a team that met with then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), “whose previous ‘unofficial’ visit to the US had caused a crisis in which China fired missiles into the sea and the US deployed carriers off the coast of Taiwan.” Yes, that’s right, mighty Chen caused that crisis all by himself. Neither the US nor the People’s Republic of China (PRC) exercised any agency. Nye then nostalgically invoked the comical specter
Relations between Taiwan and the Czech Republic have flourished in recent years. However, not everyone is pleased about the growing friendship between the two countries. Last month, an incident involving a Chinese diplomat tailing the car of vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) in Prague, drew public attention to the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) operations to undermine Taiwan overseas. The trip was not Hsiao’s first visit to the Central European country. It was meant to be low-key, a chance to meet with local academics and politicians, until her police escort noticed a car was tailing her through the Czech capital. The
April 15 to April 21 Yang Kui (楊逵) was horrified as he drove past trucks, oxcarts and trolleys loaded with coffins on his way to Tuntzechiao (屯子腳), which he heard had been completely destroyed. The friend he came to check on was safe, but most residents were suffering in the town hit the hardest by the 7.1-magnitude Hsinchu-Taichung Earthquake on April 21, 1935. It remains the deadliest in Taiwan’s recorded history, claiming around 3,300 lives and injuring nearly 12,000. The disaster completely flattened roughly 18,000 houses and damaged countless more. The social activist and
Over the course of former President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) 11-day trip to China that included a meeting with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping (習近平) a surprising number of people commented that the former president was now “irrelevant.” Upon reflection, it became apparent that these comments were coming from pro-Taiwan, pan-green supporters and they were expressing what they hoped was the case, rather than the reality. Ma’s ideology is so pro-China (read: deep blue) and controversial that many in his own Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) hope he retires quickly, or at least refrains from speaking on some subjects. Regardless